Scott Mansion One of Elkins' Proudest Landmarks

By David Armstroung

One of Elkins' proudest Victorian era landmarks is the Scott mansion on Scott Hill in South Elkins, built by Senator Cyrus Hall Scott in the mid 1890's. While the Scott mansion may not equal Halliehurst and Graceland in size and stature, it certainly rivals any of Elkins' landmarks in beauty, elegance, and richness of history.

The Scott mansion, with its coupled columns, polygonal bays, three-story tower with conical roof, carriage porch and stately balconies, was built partly from bricks taken from a substantial, pre-Civil War brick farmhouse that stood on the grounds, and with this older house the history of the Scott mansion begins.

The older house was built about 1815 or 1820 by George Hill, a Pennsylvanian who came to Randolph County about 1810 or 1820, and who married Rebecca Scott, she being a member of a Scott family who appears to have come to the area with George Hill, or he with them. The parents of Rebecca Scott, John and Mary Scott, have been given by historians as ancestors of Cyrus Hall Scott, but documentation proves that they were not related.

The older brick farmhouse, as well as the present Scott mansion, were both built on a tract of 50 acres that George Hill purchased of Edwin S. Duncan in 1812. He had married Rebecca Scott in January of that year. This 50 acre tract included all of present day Riverview addition. In November of 1827, Hill purchased 94 acres to the north from Eli Butcher. This larger tract included the present day industrial park west of the end of 11th Street, the present day sawmills northwest of the railroad tracks on Livingston Avenue, and a good portion of the bottom across from the present day stockyards. In March of 1844, Hill added to his holdings the present day stockyard property, and this adjoined another tract upstream near the flood control he had acquired in 1821. This gave the brick house farm a total of almost 220 acres.

The older brick dwelling stood on the hill back of the present day Scott mansion, across Georgetown Road from its intersection with Conaway Drive. It commanded a spectacular view of the mountains and valleys on three sides. The farm was apparently one of the better in the area, and Hill had a plum orchard on the 94 acre tract above mentioned. In October of 1844 Rebecca Hill passed away, and is buried on the knoll near the southeast corner of the mansion property, a little northwest of Vector Avenue's intersection with Georgetown Road. An individual employed removing a tree from the knoll for Mildred Scott Smith in the 1960's unearthed the tombstone of Rebecca Hill, and Mrs. Smith had it re-engraved, but it was never reset. Evidence of several other burials can be found on the spot, probably children of the Hill family.

George Hill married for a second wife Ann Scott, a sister-in-law of Rebecca Hill, in 1845 and moved her to the brick house farm. Their marriage was short-lived, however, and at some point after their separation in 1847 but before his death Hill left the brick house, having rented it to Elias Riffle in 1864. George Hill died in February of 1867, and the farm became the focal point of a number of lawsuits, the title never being fully cleared until its purchase by Senator Scott.

Scott purchased the 50 acre tract and brick dwelling from Leland Kittle, special commissioner appointed by the court to make the sale, in May of 1889, for $1030.00. He purchased the property between Conaway Drive and the railroad from William Phares in 1893, Phares having acquired the tract from William L. Hill's heirs.

The Scott mansion was under construction in 1895, and Scott had the Hill brick house torn down and the bricks were used in part of the foundations or fireplaces of the present day mansion. He moved with his family into the house on March 17, 1897 from Beverly, and the house was still not completed. He was an associate of Davis and Elkins, and served in the state legislature from 1926-1930. Cyrus Hall Scott died on Scott Hill in 1944.


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